Nowadays, the fixing and connecting of cables to one another by material connection can be accomplished by, for example, welding or soldering. It has been found that friction welding processes, and in particular rotational friction welding processes, are suitable for connecting two cables. However, in rotational friction welding it is necessary for the individual wires of a conductor to be pressed together by means of a supporting sleeve so that they do not straddle in the rotational friction welding. Also, in rotational friction welding only one workpiece at a time can be connected to another. Each connection needs a stage of operation of its own. Finally, at least one of the members to be joined has to be freely rotatable on its axis in rotational friction welding.
It is also known for electrical interfacing terminal points to be arranged on flat conductors. In this case too it has been proposed that an interfacing terminal point be arranged on the flat cable by friction welding. However, it has been found that in rotational friction welding the fixed position of the pin cannot be set with sufficient accuracy. Also, in the case of conventional interfacing terminal points, it is known for a threaded pin to be inserted in a hole in the flat conductor and for a sleeve to be screwed onto the thread. The sleeve then presses the pin against the flat conductor. However, a structure of this kind makes it necessary for certain minimum dimensions to be maintained, in order for example to ensure the shear strength of the thread on the pin. Hence it is not possible for interfacing terminal points of less than a minimum overall height to be provided by conventional methods. Also, a connection of this kind is only possible to copper conductors. With aluminum conductors, the making of electrical contact may be disturbed with by a layer of aluminum oxide on the conductor and/or the sleeve.
The object underlying the invention has therefore been to provide a method and a connecting arrangement for conductors which are distinguished by easy manipulability, low production costs and a very fixed position for the connection.